Once upon a time I moved to California for a new job, and truthfully, a new life.  It wasn’t that I didn’t like Portland, Oregon. It’s actually a gorgeous city full of great restaurants and bars with the most ambiance I have ever known restaurants and bars to have. And then there’s the waterfront setting – as beautiful as it gets.

But I needed a change.

Although Dennis is the love of my life and the narcissist in me believes God created him solely to be my soul mate, we were experiencing rough waters like all marriages will at one time or another. Of course, soul mates are destined to reunite, and so we ended up once again blissfully cohabiting.

I must admit the short separation brought some much needed appreciation for one another back to the marriage. Ever since then it has been a decade filled with new places and faces, opportunities and challenges. All in all I’d say it’s been anything but boring.

I have made some lifetime friends here and reached some personal achievement milestones, with finding a publishing home and becoming a novelist. Reflection about California Dreamin’ is bittersweet to say the least, but it has certainly been worth the ride. Whether smooth sailing or rough waters, we have weathered it all.

And now our ship is setting sail for new seas.

We are Colorado bound in just a few short weeks, and couldn’t be happier about the news which has been incessantly prayed about, discussed, wished, and wanted. Dennis has accepted a Director of Marketing position with Trans Aero Ltd. in the Fort Collins/Loveland area.

We plan to live in Fort Collins where I will teach at the University of Phoenix. I am thrilled beyond words (odd for a writer, I know). Ironically, when first married we planned to live in this exact location, but of course, fate has a way of playing its own hand and for us that was a side trip to Eugene, Oregon where Dennis got a job after graduating college. I transferred to the University of Oregon and we stayed to raise our family there, moving to Portland after they left home.

So, here we are full circle, poised to begin the adventure we had originally planned for ourselves. Writers dream of new plot twists. Nothing sparks creativity like discovering all there is to know about a new city, making memories in a new home, developing new friendships, getting involved with a new community and communing with new wonders of nature.

Ever since the New Year everything seems to have magically changed, not unlike a Disney film. Our careers of passion and preference are looking up for both of us.  My publicist is off and running with a marketing plan for my books, while my husband is once again in his happy zone of marketing helicopter service to federal, state and private companies. I can only hope that every month of this New Year will be as significant in a good way.

Well played, January 2014, well played!

Thank you to those friends out there who have stuck with us through thick and thin, and have been rooting for us to dig our way out of the sunken economy we fell into. Of course I plan to visit this area a couple times a year to meet with my publisher, and to hold book signings in this community where I have built a presence, albeit a small and humble one.

Email and FB will keep us connected with those we care about between visits, and I truly hope everyone who has said they will come see us – will. The Rocky Mountains, afterall, will be in our backyard. That should thrill you with new terrain to hike and ways to be inspired while we catch up on our lives and reminisce about old times.

It is going to be a whirlwind next few months to be sure, what with moving, Dennis beginning a new job, me teaching that first creative writing course at the University of Phoenix in Fort Collins, and my short story collection Fractured Hearts being launched. How exciting is all of that?

I am grateful beyond words for the opportunities now forming for our future. God is indeed good, and although we have been greatly blessed even prior to these new developments, knowing our persistence and faith in God has gotten us through some difficult times of late makes us confident that we can meet any new challenges looming before us in Colorado.

Among our first challenges, without a doubt, will be experiencing less than 70 degree weather on a near daily basis in the dead of winter (something we have begun to take for granted and that will now end abruptly), trying to find a church that will energize and inspire us as much as Bayside in Granite Bay has done, and missing every one of you that we count among our dearest friends.

Mainly, this writer is hoping they have some inviting coffee houses in Fort Collins. Everything else can be worked out, with latte in hand.